Understanding the times
‘It’s not hard to view the world as something beautiful but somehow broken.
‘Institutions have let us down. More effort is spent on blaming others then finding solutions. And today it seems a person’s word has lost its worth. Yet if the fading of these values disturbs us, then surely they must still matter? We still admire honesty, fairness and the courage it takes to speak out against what’s wrong.’ Not the start of an evangelistic sermon (though it might well be!), but the text of a full page colour advertisement in the Telegraph Magazine for September 1 2012, for the home and business insurance firm Hiscox, whose strapline is ‘as good as our word’.